Google previews Google Fit APIs for sharing fitness-logging info

Google aims to remove the frustration of logging across too many apps.

The various apps and services that will use Google Fit, available in the coming weeks.

Google announced a new set of APIs called Google Fit at its Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. Fit is meant to help Google users keep track of fitness goals with wearables, sensors, and data-logging apps by letting those apps and devices share information with each other.

Google didn't go into much detail on usage scenarios of the APIs, but it appears that app flexibility will be more dependent on the apps themselves, rather than the platform. The platform will have a single set of APIs that allow different fitness apps to share info between one another with the appropriate permissions.

As one example, Google showed the fitness app Noom, which is normally used to log body weight. With the APIs, Noom can pull in data on nutrition and workouts from other apps to present a better picture of what is going into weight changes.

Google named a number of partners including LG, RunKeeper, RunTastic, Adidas, Basis, Nike, and Motorola. Google specifically mentioned wearables, but the only device named for integration during the presentation was Nike's Fuel system.

Google announced Fit just weeks after Apple announced a similar platform dubbed Healthkit. While Google's focuses more on data and fitness tracking, Apple's appears to center more around health and medical issues and can share information with healthcare providers.

17 Reader Comments

I use runkeeper for logging runsWithings for weight (wifi scale is nice)Fitbit for steps.

Fitbit won't likely tie in with google's services since they try to sell you devices for every slot. That said, I don't really care about having all this data merged. All of the data I collect is for historical trends, I'm not trying to adjust my calorie intake based on how many steps I've made in a day. I mostly want to look at my individual trends. Am I getting fatter? (scale) Am I getting faster? (runkeeper) do I get enough baseline activity? (fitbit).

Fitbit is the notable omission here. They have great tools, but they keep their data under lock and key. Well, really, it's your data.

I'm more integrated into the Google ecosystem than the Fitbit ecosystem. A little bit of a sunk cost as I already own a Fitbit, but I'll be looking into wearables that are compatible with Google Fit (and I suppose Healthkit?).

It's not just Fitbit, others have also been reluctant to easily share data so far (Nike+ in particular, but others too). I really wonder how successful these APIs will be given the competitive situation of services and device makers that would be using them.

I used Runkeeper on my Note II before I bought the Runlastic HRM. Now I have to use Runlastic app because Runkeeper just refuses to support Bluetooth LE on android. I am sure if the information sharing happens realtime or Runkeeper can support my Runlastic HRM via a common API.

I suppose this is for the mainstream consumer because without Garmin, Strava and MapMyRun-Ride... support, it doesn't really offer any value to the hardcore. Hell even partnering with Wahoo would have made this more useful.

No one uses Polar outside of gyms (ok maybe 5% of the non-gym market). A lot of people bought the Nike+ Sportswatch because it was so much better looking than the competition, but dumped it because it was so inaccurate. Without the Sportswatch GPS crowd, NIke+ only has FuelBand users. No idea about the number of users split between Strava, MapMy..., Runkeeper, Nike+ and Endomondo, but in terms of useful data and maps Strava and MapMyRun-Ride are way in the lead.

I suppose in Google's defense, Strava is impossible to work with as a third party developer and Garmin has been focusing a lot on their own platform. Still, if you want to capture the fitness community you need the base that will religiously upload their data not people that walk around the block once a week and think that qualifies as exercise.

I used Runkeeper on my Note II before I bought the Runlastic HRM. Now I have to use Runlastic app because Runkeeper just refuses to support Bluetooth LE on android.

RunKeeper claimed this was coming in the June release, but I haven't been able to get it to work myself yet. I usually just use it instead of runtastic anyways though because I want the lock screen widget with my current run stats and I'm not that worried about tracking heart rate.

Lots of these comments describe a general problem with "Cloud" computing in general, but especially with health/medical records: Ownership of data...

Basically, many companies (small companies (that sell to users) such as Fitbit, and large companies (that sell to hospitals) such as GE Health) all feel that they own the data, and that they can use that data for additional profit and to lock competitors out of the market.

There has been some effort made to standardize the interfaces between devices (see IEEE-11073-20601 for personal devices and 11073-20101 (?) for hospital level devices). Ideally, if these standards takes off, each person can pick which hardware they want (based on price/looks/features) and which data services they want (again...price/features). Similarly, medical devices could start to interoperate better in hospitals if they all used a common standard (though, there may be some issues with FDA approval in those cases)

However (as you can imagine), manufacturers have been opposed to this, as they are afraid that it might commoditize their business. So, it's really upon us as consumers to select devices that implement those standards (or other, equivalent standards) if we want *all* devices to communicate...

Didn't Nike fire the Fuelband team and cancel the hardware? I'm unclear what Fuel does without the hardware side.

Yes. Nike's ditching hardware and moving to a create/define the platform & service model. I'm guessing this partnership was in the works before Nike's decision, which was rather sudden and I don't think ever officially announced. Moving forward I guess it means devices built for the Fuel service/platform will be able to share data with Google Fit.

Lots of these comments describe a general problem with "Cloud" computing in general, but especially with health/medical records: Ownership of data...

Basically, many companies (small companies (that sell to users) such as Fitbit, and large companies (that sell to hospitals) such as GE Health) all feel that they own the data, and that they can use that data for additional profit and to lock competitors out of the market.

There has been some effort made to standardize the interfaces between devices (see IEEE-11073-20601 for personal devices and 11073-20101 (?) for hospital level devices). Ideally, if these standards takes off, each person can pick which hardware they want (based on price/looks/features) and which data services they want (again...price/features). Similarly, medical devices could start to interoperate better in hospitals if they all used a common standard (though, there may be some issues with FDA approval in those cases)

However (as you can imagine), manufacturers have been opposed to this, as they are afraid that it might commoditize their business. So, it's really upon us as consumers to select devices that implement those standards (or other, equivalent standards) if we want *all* devices to communicate...

Yeah with apple accepting and merging standards as well I think it will get interesting. While the high end super training person might stick to spreading their data to different apps, the bulk of sales will likely move outside iof that. With Google and Apple both integrating these features it is going to create an expansion of the market. I think those who are compatible with devices and programs will end up getting the lion's share of the expanded market.

The average user is going to be much more likely to want a single app/interface/location for this data and the capability to easily cross compare. The high end of the market might get away without it but everyone else is going to wonder why their device doesn't work with their phone or tablet like other devices do.

I used Runkeeper on my Note II before I bought the Runlastic HRM. Now I have to use Runlastic app because Runkeeper just refuses to support Bluetooth LE on android.

RunKeeper claimed this was coming in the June release, but I haven't been able to get it to work myself yet. I usually just use it instead of runtastic anyways though because I want the lock screen widget with my current run stats and I'm not that worried about tracking heart rate.

I just updated my runkeeper, now it does work with Runlastic HRM. It connects instantly after pairing. There is no setting to pair/enable HRM in settings menu, but you have to do it in the main screen.